


"What are you working on?"

by Dragon_Writes



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Fluff, How Do I Tag, Maria and Shadow being siblings, before GUN ruined things, i love these two so much, maria and shadow deserved better
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-07-06
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:41:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25111063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dragon_Writes/pseuds/Dragon_Writes
Summary: Her first meeting with Shadow had been… interesting, put simply.
Relationships: Gerald Robotnik & Maria Robotnik, Gerald Robotnik & Shadow the Hedgehog, Maria Robotnik & Shadow the Hedgehog
Kudos: 37





	"What are you working on?"

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this at the end of May and proceeded to ignore it until today. Why? Because I haven't uploaded anything in months and Sonic is the only thing I've been able to think about, so take this. I was still learning a lot about the actual characters when this was written so please leave any corrections in the comments, and I hope you enjoy!

Her first meeting with Shadow had been… interesting, put simply.

Maria had been wandering the cold, metallic hallways of the ARK, eyes alight with curiosity as she’d followed her grandfather. She had ensured that he was at least a turn ahead of her so she could stay hidden, unsure as to how he’d react if she was discovered. 

Finally, the old scientist came to a stop outside of a door, and Maria just barely refrained from rounding the corner and drawing attention to herself. Her grandfather typed in a passcode before entering the room, which she could see contained several screens and had an ominous glow emerging from the left hand side.

“Miss Robotnik, what are you doing here? Come along, I shall bring you back to your room.”

Huffing as one of her grandfather’s fellow scientists had appeared by her side, Maria reluctantly followed them, glancing behind her occasionally to make sure her grandfather had not reemerged. The passcode he’d typed in echoed in her mind, although it wasn’t difficult to remember; her grandfather wasn’t original, and had chosen her birthday as the numbers.

When morning came, Maria left her room with one intent; find out what her grandfather was working on.

She had slipped through the ARK’s corridors with ease, knowing exactly where to avoid at this time so she interacted with as little people as possible, before rounding the final corner to the doorway. The passcode allowed her in with ease and, with shoulders slightly hunched with nervous excitement, she stepped through the entryway. The room was lit only by the screens she had seen the night before, displaying paragraphs upon paragraphs of information that she couldn’t make sense of.

With a shaky breath she turned to her left, where the strongest light source gave the room a blue glow. Standing against the wall was a large tube, and inside was…

“A hedgehog?” Maria whispered, taking a step closer to the strange creature. It floated in the tube of water, eyes closed and seemingly asleep even as she came closer and closer to the glass, finally resting her hand nearby where the hedgehog’s head was.

She was so caught up in her awe that the sound of the door opening made her yelp, turning around to face whoever had entered with a look of guilt.

“Maria? What in chaos name- You aren’t supposed to be here!” Her grandfather proclaimed.

Scuffing her blue shoes on the floor, Maria glanced up to the frazzled scientist. “I wanted to know what you were working on, so…”

He sighed, pushing his glasses up his nose before giving her a look of fond exasperation. “What on earth am I going to do with you.”

“How about you tell me what that is?” Maria replied, an innocent but mischievous grin on her face as her grandfather shook his head in amusement.

And that was how she first learned of Shadow, although at the time he had only been referred to as a project until she had objected, claiming that “everyone deserves a proper name!”

After a full night of thinking, Maria had finally settled on the name Shadow. When her grandfather asked why, she had explained how he was created to protect and help others, and would always be by her side like a shadow. The scientist had chuckled when she sheepishly admitted that she first thought of the name due to his dark pelt, but the name remained.

Maria came back to the room as often as she could, passing the time by reading stories to Shadow, or telling her own. Even if he was asleep in the tube, with no way to know if he could hear her, it made the ARK feel a little less lonely.

It had been two weeks since her initial discovery of Shadow, Maria sitting on the cold floor of the room, doodling and telling Shadow elaborate stories that the drawings portrayed, that it happened.

As she glanced up, she dropped the crayon in shock with a gasp. Two ruby red eyes watched her from the tube, flickering with uncertainty as they scanned the room before focusing back on Maria.

“You- you’re awake, oh my god you’re awake!” she exclaimed, smiling widely as Shadow gave her a look of curiosity. “Hold on, uh, I’ll go get my grandfather!”

Sprinting out of the room, Maria finally arrived at her grandfather’s main office, taking a moment to catch her breath before frantically knocking and yelling through the door, “Shadow’s awake!” 

Without even waiting to see if her grandfather had followed, she turned back and ran to the room once again, smiling apologetically when Shadow jumped at her sudden reentrance.

Coming up to the tube, Maria placed her hand on the glass like she had on that first day, giving a squeak of glee when the small hedgehog placed his own against hers. His look of hesitance relaxed slightly when she smiled, before becoming guarded once more as Gerald entered the room.

“Well I’ll be,” he uttered almost inaudibly, before glancing to the screen displaying Shadow’s vitals.

“Is he okay, grandfather?” she asked. “Can he come out? It can’t be fun just floating in water with nothing to do.”

Her grandfather hummed, checking Shadow’s vitals once again, before responding, “Yes, all seems to be fine, I’ll drain the water now and you can meet each other properly.”

“Yes!!!” Maria exclaimed, jumping over into her grandfather’s arms in glee before turning back to the confused hedgehog. “Oh, Shadow, I have so much to show you!”

He seemed to pick up on her excitement as he gave a small smile of his own, before glancing around in shock as the water began to drain from the tube.

As the last of the water disappeared, the glass was lifted in order to let him out. Cautiously Shadow glanced towards the two Robotniks, flinching slightly as Gerald stepped towards him. Everything was much more muffled when underwater, the sound of his shoes tapping against the steel floor shrill to his sensitive ears.

“Hello, Shadow,” Maria said softly, staying back in order to not overwhelm him as her grandfather kneeled down, hands put up reassuringly so Shadow could keep an eye on every movement. 

The dark hedgehog glanced at the scientist warily before bringing his large red eyes back to Maria, bringing his own hand up in a grabbing motion.

Cautiously she moved forward, blue eyes wide and caring, before leaning down beside her grandfather and taking the hedgehog’s hand.

“C’mon, you can do it,” she smiled encouragingly, allowing him to take her other hand in an attempt to balance.

Slowly, Shadow moved so that he was in a standing position, staring up at Maria in wonder in spite of his shaking legs.

“Well done, Shadow!” she said, grinning once again. “I don’t know if you could hear me from the tube, but my name is Maria and I’m really happy to meet you!”

Shadow just blinked in response before scrunching his face up in concentration. “M- Mar-i-a” he babbled.

“Yeah that’s it! Ma-ri-a!”

“Mmmaria?” 

The laughter of the two echoed around the room, forgetting everything else as they focused only on each other, a bond created that wouldn’t be easily broken. 

Gerald smiled fondly at the two from where he now stood, before turning to one of the screens containing Shadow’s files with one thought in mind. 

Shadow was to be used to heal, not fight. And he’d do whatever he could to keep it that way.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!! Comments and kudos are very much appreciated along with any criticism, have a lovely day/night wherever you may be :)


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